


Hot Knife

by bitboozy



Series: Domesticated [19]
Category: Broadchurch
Genre: Alec is the Beast to Ellie's Belle apparently, Also Lucy may or may not have a hard on for Hardy, Daisy would REALLY like for them to start using their BEDROOM for once, Established Relationship, F/M, HARDY PLAYING WITH SMALL CHILDREN ALERT, Romance, ~beach confessions~
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-04
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-09 23:21:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20518115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bitboozy/pseuds/bitboozy
Summary: A series of vignettes in which difficult conversations lead Alec and Ellie running straight to each other.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I think I'm getting to a point in this series where it's starting to make more sense to stick to the longer stories with chapters rather than lots of individual short stories. Going to transition into that structure, I think, so keep an eye out for that! 
> 
> This story will mostly deal with our heroes coming out to various people about Ellie's pregnancy, and the various ways those conversations impact their daily life.
> 
> Thank you all for reading!

It’s just after dusk, and Ellie Miller is sitting alone on the beach with a packet of chips. It’s rare that she’s alone these days, and she finds herself relishing the quiet beauty of the moment. 

Until her sister finally shows up.

“Oi, save some for me, will you?”

Lucy trudges down the beach, folding her arms across her chest to combat the chill from the active wind.

“Fuck’s sake, there’s plenty left,” Ellie replies with a scowl.

When Lucy is close enough, she stops at the edge of the blanket Ellie has laid down and is sitting atop. “Mum’s blanket.”

“Yeah,” Ellie says, patting the spot next to her.

Lucy hesitates, then sits down. Ellie holds out the packet of chips and she takes one. “Why’d you bring Mum’s blanket.”

Ellie shrugs, trying to feel as nonchalant as she looks. “Sort of wanted to feel like she was here.” 

“Why?” Lucy is very wary now, and looks like she’s waiting for an anvil to drop on her head. 

“Got somethin’ to tell you.” Ellie pops a chip in her mouth and stares out of the sea.

“God’s sake, _what_?”

“Have to promise you won’t laugh.”

“No.”

“_Luce_.”

“No! What is it?”

“Promise you’ll be _nice_.”

“I’ll not promise a thing,” Lucy insists.

Ellie exhales loudly and lies back on the blanket. Lucy eagerly turns to look down at her. 

“I’m goin’ to drag you into the sea by your bloody hair if you don’t tell me right this instant!” Lucy exclaims. “_Eleanor_.”

Ellie grimaces ostentatiously at the use of her given name. “Fine,” she sighs, and then says again, “Don’t laugh.”

Lucy glares at her and waits.

“…I’m pregnant.”

Lucy’s jaw drops all the way to the ground. “Bollocks you are!” 

Ellie closes her eyes and winces. Lucy shifts onto her knees and grabs onto Ellie’s arm. “You’re not!”

Ellie makes an unintelligible noise.

“El!”

“Eight weeks on Thursday,” Ellie says, opening one eye, only half wanting to see Lucy’s reaction.

“Oh my god, you are up the bloody duff with that bleedin’ Scotsman’s baby!” Then she frowns. “It is the bleedin’ Scotsman’s baby, innit?” 

Ellie props herself up on her elbows and glares at her sister. “_Yes_, Lucy.”

Lucy is shaking her head, fully unable to comprehend this news. “Good christ, and you as old as sin.”

“If I’m old as sin, what does that make _you_, pray?!”

“Not the point. I can’t believe you!”

Ellie sits up again and starts stuffing chips in her mouth. “Was an _accident_, obviously.”

“Your birth control pills were no match for his very virile sperm, eh?” Lucy surmises, grabbing a chip. “Not surprised, me. There’s somethin’ awfully _animal _about him, isn’t there? Like he could just…rip your clothes off with his teeth and impregnate you right where you stand.” 

Ellie merely blinks back at her in befuddled consternation. Lucy only shrugs, unmoved as always. “’s always the grumpy ones, innit? Bet he just _growls _at you with his thick Scottish brogue, throws you up against the wall and then turns you over.” 

“_Lucy_!”

Lucy bites into a chip, staring off into the distance distractedly. “Wha?”

Ellie whacks her sister in the shoulder. “Think you’re missin’ the bloody point here, though I assure you we will one day return to the subject of you clearly fantasizing about my – my –”

Lucy smirks wickedly. “Your _what_.”

“My…boyfriend.” She winces.

“Oh, it’s your little _boyfriend_’s got you knocked up, is it. Things go a little too far neckin’ in the backseat of his car at the drive-in?”

Ellie throws a chip at her. “Oh my god, Lucy, bugger off, will you.”

She lies back down on the blanket. After a moment, Lucy lies down beside her. They both look up at the darkening sky.

“How d’you feel?” Lucy asks quietly.

“Poorly quite often, running to the loo every chance…”

“Not what I mean.”

“Oh.” Ellie hesitates. “Didn’t come ‘round to it right off, but now…quite tickled, if I’m being honest.”

Lucy turns her head to look at her sister. “Yeah?” 

“Wasn’t sure it was what I wanted. Back to square one and all that. But a baby with _him _will be…well. Bit extraordinary, I reckon.” She turns her head to Lucy and smiles. “Imagine his grumpy little face on a _baby_. Oh, my heart.”

Lucy smiles back. “You’re happy then.”

“Yeah,” Ellie replies. “Can hardly believe it myself.”

“Dr. Sinclair give you the what-for?" 

“Ohhh, yeah.”

“What’s Hardy feel about all this?” Lucy asks.

Ellie lights up. “Oh, god, Luce, he’s…he’s just the loveliest, he really is. Never seen him quite so pleased. Over the moon, he says.”

“Blimey that man’s full of surprises, isn’t he.” Lucy shakes her head in disbelief, looking back up at the sky. “Must really love you.”

They both go quiet, staring up. After a few moments, Ellie slowly reaches for Lucy’s hand. Neither moves.

“…You scared?” Lucy asks softly.

“A bit.” 

Lucy seems to nod without nodding. “’ll be all right. Fred went better than expected.”

“Forty-three’s a long way off from thirty-eight.”

“You’re in right good shape though, El,” Lucy assures her. “Reckon your body is stronger than it ever was. After all you’ve endured these last years. If it was goin’ to break on you, think it would’ve done already.” 

When Ellie doesn’t respond, Lucy squeezes her hand.

“Tell the kids yet?”

“Yeah. They’re on the fence, if I’m bein’ honest.”

Lucy chuckles. “Makes sense. You’ve all just moved in together seems like, this is a bit more than they bargained for.”

“Well, us too,” Ellie agrees.

“They’ll come ‘round.” Lucy turns onto her side to look at her sister. “Gonna tell Dad next?”

“Oh god.” Ellie covers her face with her hands. “Like to avoid him for the next seven months and then just put a baby in his arms, he won’t be able to say a thing about it he’ll be so busy doting.”

“He might not take it so badly,” Lucy says, though the tone of her voice betrays that she scarcely believes it. “He took to the news of Alec better than expected, didn’t he.”

“I suppose,” Ellie admits. “Though they still can’t be left in a room together for more than thirty seconds at a time.”

“Well, how d’you _want _Dad to react to the cranky old Scottish bloke who’s shaggin’ his own subordinate?”

“Call me his subordinate again and I’ll smack your face,” Ellie claps back.

Lucy grins. “Now the cranky old Scottish bloke has gone and gotten his little girl pregnant out of wedlock, oh it’s too _delicious_.”

“Promise me you’ll be there.”

“Are you kiddin’? I wouldn’t _miss _it!”

“But you can’t laugh! You have to be _supportive_.”

“Yeah, I’ll be supportive but I can’t promise I won’t _laugh_,” Lucy says. “Gonna tell him with or without Alec?”

Ellie sighs. “With, I think. Best if it’s all…out in the open from the start, otherwise they’ll never look each other in the eyes again for as long as we all live and it’ll be _agony_.”

Lucy can’t argue with that. They both turn onto their backs again, and there’s another bit of quiet.

“You know what Mum would say, don’t you?” Lucy asks.

Ellie smiles slightly, but doesn’t say anything.

“She’d say ‘that’s the price you pay for a good shag, love.’”

Ellie grins, and they both start laughing. Then Ellie turns her head and looks at her sister seriously. “She’d have liked him, though, don’t you think?”

Lucy matches her somber expression. “Yeah. He’d have charmed her right from the start with that accent and those broodin’ eyes. She’d have melted into the _ground_ the first time she heard him call you ‘lass.’”

“Oh, me too,” Ellie agrees enthusiastically. “I hope I never get used to it.”

Lucy smirks over at her. “D’you just want to jump him when he says things like that? Tell the truth.”

“_Oh, aye_,” Ellie replies, doing her best Scottish accent. “And the cheeky bastard knows it too, serves me with a broody stare and a ‘bonnie lass’ whenever he wants a shag.”

“Mmm…” Lucy turns to hide her appreciative smile. 

Ellie whacks her.

“_Luce_.”

“Wha?” She feigns offense. “You get to have ‘im, I can’t at least _daydream _a little?”

“No you bloody well can’t, he belongs to my daydreams only.”

“Bet you’re wrong.” Lucky wiggles her eyebrows.

“What? Shut up. What do you mean?”

“He may not have any _friends _in this town, but I bet he’s got some, uh, _admirers_,” Lucy explains wickedly. “Who would not kick him out of the sack.”

Ellie’s eyes widen. “Stop it.”

“What? This is what happens when you land yourself a right piece of ass, El.”

“Fuck’s sake, Luce!”

Ellie sits up and fishes around in the chips packet to see if there’s any left, fully intending to eat her feelings. Lucy sits up too, laughing.

“Oh, what do you care?” Lucy rolls her eyes at her sister’s uptight reaction. “Poor sod only has eyes for _you_.”

Ellie kicks her lightly, continuing to pout. Lucy kicks her back.

By the time Ellie makes it home from the beach, the house is quiet. The teenagers have retreated to their respective bedrooms, and Ellie runs into Alec in the upstairs hallway, carefully closing the door to Fred’s room behind him.

“Oh hello,” she greets him, with a familiar sparkle in her eyes.

He eyes her suspiciously. “You’ve either done something naughty or you’re about to.”

She throws her arms around his neck. “The second one. I hope.”

He clasps his hands together at the small of her back. “Oh, that’s good news for _me_, sounds like.”

She pushes herself up to kiss him, but stops suddenly and grins against his lips. “D’you know how many tarty women in this town apparently wish they could get you into bed?”

“Don’t care,” he says, kissing her languidly. “…How many.”

“Enough to keep you busy for a very, very long time.”

“Ach, too bad then.” He pulls her flush against him and holds her there. “’m already busy for the rest of my life.”

“God, you’re a smarmy old wanker,” she says in response to his smug grin.

“Oi with the _old_, woman,” he complains.

“You’re such a smug pain the arse, I just want to kiss your stupid face off.”

She’s scrunching up her nose, pouting, but her cheeks are a lovely pink blush and her eyes are shining. He pushes her back against the wall, and then waits.

“_What_,” she says, challengingly.

“Do it,” he replies, challenging her right back. “Do it, then." 

“I’ll not give you the satisfaction.” She turns her nose up at him.

“Keep lookin’ like that, with your infuriatingly massive brown eyes and that wild glow about you, and I’ll have to kiss _your _stupid face off.” 

They tilt their heads from one side to the other, just barely brushing their lips together, teasing each other beyond relief. His body betrays him and he’s already hard and pushing against her. She reaches for his arse and squeezes it.

“Christ, that perfect bloody nose of yours, I just want to _bite _it,” he growls.

This causes _her _to bite _him_, quickly lurching forward and nipping his bottom lip. Then she leans her head back against the wall again to observe his reaction.

“Think you’re so clever,” he purrs, leering at her. He brings a hand to her breast and begins tracing her nipple with his index finger. She shudders.

He slowly starts to lean his head in, attempting to bring his lips to hers again when she tangles her fingers in his hair and then _yanks _at it, jerking his head backwards. “Think _you’re _in control, do you?” She says, and then, with her other hand, reaching down between them to feel him, hard as a rock. “You’ve _long _lost your control, Detective Inspector.”

Alec thrusts his hips into hers and she gasps, far too loudly. “Lost it right along with yours, Detective Sergeant.”

They’re so preoccupied with _not _kissing each other, they don’t hear Daisy emerging from her bedroom. She doesn’t even look up from her mobile at she passes them.

“For fuck’s sake, go to your room!” Daisy groans, before disappearing into the loo and slamming the door.

Pressed up against the wall, Ellie and Alec don’t move. They’re locked in a battle of wills now, staring at each other, daring each other to take the next step. She can tell by the desperate, helpless look on his face that she’s winning, and the cunning smile that appears on her face only serves to weaken him more. He brings both hands to the wall on either side of her head to brace himself as he grinds up against her. 

“Can’t help yourself, can you,” she says with great pride.

He bows his head down in between her neck and shoulder, his warm breath against her skin, but doesn’t allow his lips to touch her. “Nor can any of the tarty women tryin’ to get me into bed,” he replies. “All I have to do is let them come to me. No work required.”

She is unperturbed. The feeling of his hard length against her is enough to remind her she has no need to be jealous. And he knows she knows it. Her way of retaliating, then, is to bring her hand to her blouse and start slowly unbuttoning it from top to bottom. He tries not to, but he lowers his gaze to watch her, lips parting from sheer _longing_.

Daisy emerges from the loo and shields her eyes as she walks past. “Oh my god, why do you even _have _a bedroom then?” She walks as fast as she can and then locks herself in her room .

“Nnnng,” is all Alec says. Or doesn’t say.

She raises an eyebrow. “Say again?” She asks innocently.

“_Fuck_, Ellie.”

It’s entirely evident that it’s taking every single ounce of willpower within him to keep from burying his face in her breasts and staying there. 

“Yes…” She nods, encouraging him to continue. “What of those tarty women now?”

“Couldn’t give a bloody toss about ‘em before,” he replies, now reaching a hand between her breasts to touch her ever so slightly. “Don’t give a toss about ‘em now.”

“Yes…” She nods again, but now lowers her gaze to watch his hand.

“You’re all the tart I need.”

She grins, and she wants to burst out laughing at the uniquely Alec way that he’s somehow managed to compliment by insulting her, but she doesn’t want to ruin what they’ve just spent the last few minutes building. She lurches forward and bites his bottom lip, this time more than just a nip.

“Go on and fuck me then, Detective Inspector.”

He grips both her thighs and lifts her up, she holds onto his shoulders. “Aye, madam. Whatever you say.” 

With that, he swiftly carries her up to their bedroom, and locks the door behind them.

**


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec and Ellie have almost a full Saturday to themselves.

He slams her against the wall with a bit more force than he means to. He’d stop to make sure she’s all right, but she’s got her tongue down his throat and he suspects she’s just fine. Her legs tighten around him and she hooks her ankles together at the small of his back. As soon as she lets him come up for air, his mouth goes straight to her breasts like he wants to devour them whole. Her fingers are alternately massaging his scalp and pulling at his hair as she arches her back into him. He sucks at the valley between her breasts until he’s sure he’s left a mark, then pushes her open blouse off her shoulders and reaches behind her for the clasp of her bra. His hands are finally practiced at this and he has it unhooked in no time at all. 

He already has his mouth back on them by the time the bra slips off her. “God, you are so fucking hot,” he murmurs into her skin before taking a nipple into his mouth.

She _loves _it when he talks to her this way. Usually she’s beautiful, lovely, gorgeous maybe. But when she’s _so fucking hot _she could lose her ever-loving _mind_. Especially now that she’s pregnant and who knows how much longer he’ll be able to make her feel this sexy.

“Say it again,” she demands.

He manages to bring his mouth away from her breast just long enough to look her square in the eyes. His lips curl into a half-smile just looking at her face. “You are so fucking hot,” he repeats, a little in awe of how stunning she always manages to look in the heat of their trysts together. “_Detective Sergeant_.”

She exhales with a smile and unhooks her ankles, hopping down and bringing her feet to the floor again. “Good now take your trousers off.”

“As you wish,” he complies, unfastening his trousers, letting them fall, and them stepping out of them.

He’s positively throbbing in his briefs and her lips curve into a wicked smile at the sight of him. “Now,” she says, leaning back against the wall as if she’s inspecting him. “Take off mine.”

“Oh, aye,” he agrees heartily, falling straight to his knees. He deftly unbuttons them, unzipping her fly, then starts to pull them down over her hips. Slowly.

Too slowly, evidently. “And make quick work of it,” she insists.

He peels them off her quickly and helps her step out of them. He runs his hands up and down her legs and looks at her, somehow both doe-eyed and teeming with desire. All he wants to do is part her thighs but he awaits further instruction. 

She remains completely in control, at least to his eye, standing against the wall in only her knickers, eyeing him like a wayward pupil. “How badly do you want me?”

The question nearly _shatters _him so obvious is the answer. “Jesus fuck, Ellie, can’t you tell?” He has to actively restrain from touching himself as he looks up at her. This angle is _unbearable_.

“_How badly_,” she repeats. Then she slips her own hand under the waistband of her knickers and just lets her fingers trail back and forth there, going no further.

He feels like he could come just watching her. “Never wanted anyone so badly in my life.”

She smiles at the expression on his face. “Do you want to fuck me, Detective Inspector?” 

He sits up on his knees until his eyes are level with the hand she’s got just under her knickers. “As hard as you’ll let me.” He grips the back of her thighs, just under her arse, and with his nose nudges her hand away. “May I?”

He looks for a nod of consent, which she gives him just imperceptibly, her bones starting to melt with desire and anticipation. She removes her hand from her knickers. He bows his head and licks her through them, like an ice cream cone. The sound she makes is unbearably sexy to him.

He smiles to himself, pleased that he’s pleased her, then pulls her knickers down and off her legs. He pushes her thighs apart and brings his head between them until his mouth is on her. He grips the back of her thighs again and sticks his tongue inside her, darting around a bit until he hears her moan.

Then there’s a knock on the door. “Dad!”

Ellie starts banging her head against the wall in frustration. “Go away right now, Daisy!” Alec calls back.

“But Dad – “

“Let it wait until morning, Daisy!” Ellie says, trying not to shout, certain her voice is betraying something they wouldn’t want Daisy to know so explicitly.

“There’s no handsoap in the loo!”

Alec is gripping Ellie’s thighs so hard now his nails are digging into her skin. “Then go to the bloody shop!”

Daisy sighs so loudly they can hear her through the door.

Alec immediately brings his mouth back to her and resumes his activities, lightly palming himself with one hand as he does. He makes her come three times that night. Once with his tongue, with her back against the wall. Once on the floor with his cock slamming into her at a wildly rapid speed which she requests (and a fervent demand that he not even _consider _being gentle with her for one single second). And then a third time nearly an hour after the second, after they’ve moved to the bed and been basking in the afterglow for a good while, still unable to keep their hands off each other, this time with his fingers.

In the early morning, Ellie wakes him with her hand and then gets him off with her mouth. As a thank you, he tends to Fred once the child rouses and lets her laze about in bed.

Saturday mornings are always a flurry of activity in the Miller-Hardy household. This particular morning, Ellie’s father has volunteered to chaffeur the boys around to their activities. He misses them more than he lets on, Ellie expects. Alec drags himself out of bed and tends to Fred, then takes on the task of getting both boys ready to go, knowing he soon has to take Daisy to the train station so she can spend the weekend with Tess. 

Ellie stays in bed. It seems fair enough. He suspects she’ll be a bit sore this morning after all.

She’s sitting up against the headboard scrolling on her phone when Alec comes back in with two mugs of coffee and a newspaper. He crawls onto the bed beside her and hands her one. 

“Thought you were seein’ Daiz off?” Ellie questions. 

“Your dad offered to drop her,” he replies. He pulls the duvet over himself as well and leans back against the headboard, reaching for his reading glasses on the nightstand.

“Sweet man,” Ellie says, though the surprise is evident in her voice. She puts her phone down at looks at him. “We ought to tell him tonight when he brings the boys back.”

Alec looks at her curiously, opening his newspaper on his lap. “Tell him what – “ Alarm flashes in his eyes. “About the baby?!” 

“Well, now that Luce knows.”

“Oh, right.” Alec puts the paper down. “You never did tell me how that went.”

She raises both eyebrows. “You never _asked_.”

“I was not given _occasion _to, thank you very much.”

She drops her head back against the headboard and smiles into her coffee. “God, that was bloody brilliant, by the way. Did I tell you that?”

He smirks, looking at her over the rims of his reading glasses. “You did come three times, El.” 

“Still, credit where credit’s due, bloody brilliant.”

He leans over and gently kisses her lips. “You bring it out in me.” 

“What? The _animal_?”

He slides down a bit to kiss her neck, his hand slipping under her shirt to caress her stomach. “Call it what you want.”

She smiles, places her coffee mug down on her bedside table so she can put an arm around him. “Know what Lucy called you last night?” Alec shudders to think. “A right piece of ass.”

He stops what he’s doing and looks at her. “She said _what_?” He’s thoroughly flummoxed.

Ellie giggles. “You heard me.”

“And just how did this come up in the course of you tellin’ her about the _baby_?”

“Oh, for god’s sake, have you _met _Lucy? Who bloody well knows where these things come from.”

He rubs his hand back and forth across her abdomen. “And what was her reaction?

“Thought I was takin’ the piss, took her ages to come ‘round,” Ellie replies. Then she glances down at where his hand is. “D’you notice a difference?”

He feels around with his hand. “Bout the same still.”

“Bet you won’t notice for a while. It’s so slight for the first few months you’d have to go away and come back to notice,” she says. “Not be feeling me up all the time.”

“Then I guess I won’t notice ‘cause I’m sure as shite goin’ to keep feelin’ you up all the time,” he says with a smirk. He hands slide up to her breasts. “I notice _here_.”

“Really?” She asks, with genuine surprise. She knows at some point soon her breasts are going to turn almost painfully tender, but it hasn’t happened yet.

“You’ve not noticed yourself positively _spilling _out of your bras?” He laughs.

“No, but apparently you have.”

He squeezes one breast, massages it lightly. “I devote my very life to these gorgeous parts of you, there’s not a thing they could get past me.”

Ellie laughs, kisses his forehead, then reaches for her coffee again. “We really should tell Dad tonight.” 

He lies with his head on her shoulder, continuing to absently stroke her stomach. “If you like.”

“What time’s your appointment today?”

Alec groans.

She sips her coffee. “What time?”

“Half eleven.”

“Right, so we should leave here ‘round quarter til.”

He sits up. “_You’re _not goin’.”

“Course I’m goin’.” She imitates his accent. 

“Just a routine checkup.”

“Yeah, on your bloody pacemaker, which _might _be considered important, so you’ll not be rid of me for anything,” Ellie insists.

She puts her coffee down again, then gets out of bed, leaving Alec madly missing her warmth.

“Thought we’d have a lie-in,” he says, nearly pouting. 

“I told you, have to take advantage of the kids being gone,” she says, beginning the process of getting dressed.

“I thought you meant…you know…” He makes a vague gesture that is somehow clear to her.

She rolls her eyes, undressing and throwing her clothes into the hamper. “My god, are you not yet satisfied? Three times last night, once already this morning…”

He sits up, glowering at her over his reading glasses. “You’re one to talk, _Insatiable Ellie_.”

“Insatiable Ellie is resting at the moment, and Flustered Mum and Wi---Partner Ellie has taken over.” She changes into her knickers and bra, hoping he hasn’t noticed her little blunder.

Alas, he is a detective. “What’d you say?”

“I said there’s too much to do to be lazing about all morning,” she amends.

He puts away his glasses, throws off the duvet and sits on the side of the bed. “You were going to say wife.”

She pulls on a pair of jeans. “No I wasn’t.”

“Yes, you were.”

“Oh, bollocks, growing out of these already, I think,” she says, of the jeans. At least they’re not her tarty jeans.

“Ellie,” he says, his eyes squaring in on her.

“What? It’s habit. I was a wife for a very long time, what of it?” She rummages through her closet for a top and finds herself displeased with all of them. “And it’s not as if…I mean, it does _feel like _I’m…you know.”

She gives up on the top for now, and goes into the master bathroom to wash her face, leaving the door open.

“My wife,” he says, standing up and walking over to stand near the open door. “Like you’re my wife.”

“Well, yeah, doesn’t it?” She splashes her face with water, then dries it with a hand towel.

He leans against the doorway, in thought. “Yeah, s’pose so,” he replies. “In a good way though.”

“Course in a good way,” she agrees, starting to brush her teeth. “So far anyway.”

He watches her in the mirror. “You’ve not changed your mind, have you? About…”

She spits her toothpaste into the sink. “God, no.” She looks at him through the mirror now. “Have you?”

“No.” He says it a bit noncommittally, with a shrug. “S’pose we might…consider some of our legal options though, for the baby’s sake.”

“It’s early days yet. We’ve time enough to get that sorted.”

It’s still a bit wild to him. That this is his life now. He’s having a _baby _with Ellie Miller. He shares a bed, a medicine cabinet, and a Netflix account with Ellie Miller. He makes her come three times in one night and then in the morning they lie in bed with mugs of coffee talking about doctor’s appointments and her gossipy sister. He stands in doorways and watches her brush her teeth and still somehow finds her sexy. How is it possible that after all they’ve been through, together and apart, they’ve managed to achieve a life like this? A life they’ve both carefully curated and worked for, where they _love _waking up in the morning and at night they go to bed, no matter how difficult they day turned out to be, totally grateful to be where they are. 

He’d never have believed it six months ago. Only six months ago. He’d have wished for it, maybe even hoped for it, but scarcely believed it.

“Alec.” She’s finished brushing her teeth now and has turned to face him, trying for his attention. “Where’ve you gone off to?”

He could tell her. He could get all soppy and tell her that he’s slipped into a quicksand of pure _amazement _and gratitude at the thought of what they have together. But he doesn’t need to. He knows she knows it already. And they’ve got things to do. They’re very busy, you know. With their whole life. 

“Just goin’ through a shopping list,” he says. “We should pop by the grocery on our way back from the doctor, gave Fred the last of the milk for his cereal this morning.”

She nods. “Mm, good, you work on that, I’m going to strip all the beds and throw all the sheets in the laundry. Impossible to do when they’re all here.”

Ellie brushes past him to get right to it. 

“El.”

She stops.

“…Might want to actually put a top on first, yeah?”

“Oh, right.” She goes back to the closet to finally decide on her final necessary item of clothing.

He loves her so much.

*

Alec attends his annual pacemaker check up with Ellie at his side. It takes about forty-five minutes of poking and prodding, of lying with his shirt off and staring off into nothing. Ellie pulls a chair next to the examination table and holds his hand, with her nose in a book at the same time. She’s not worried. She makes a point out of listening to his heartbeat at least once a day. She knows as much as any doctor. In her opinion anyway.

In the end, the doctor seems pleased, tells him to keep doing what he’s doing, and lets him know he’s free to put his shirt back on.

When they’re alone again, Ellie hands him his shirt, then lays her palm on his bare chest. He knows what she’s doing.

“Doctor just did that,” he reminds her with some amusement.

“I know,” Ellie replies, concentrating on rhythm of his heartbeat. “But since I’m here.”

He sits up to put his shirt back on and she removes her hand.

*

After the doctor, they stop the the grocery, the bank, the dry cleaners. When her sugar cravings get to be too much, he waits in the car while she runs into the bake shop and comes out with more cupcakes than he can imagine fitting into her tiny body.

“…For the kids?” He asks, eyeing them.

“No.” She shoves one into her mouth whole.

At home, she continues with the laundry while he hoovers the entire house, every floor. Halfway through the afternoon, she has a quick bout of morning sickness and attachs herself to the toilet for a good forty-five minutes. He uses the time to wash both of their cars. When he comes back inside, he finds her curled up on the couch watching _Bake Off_.

“Oh, good christ,” he mutters under his breath.

She stretches her arms out to him. “Come, come, you must watch this.” She is completely genuine and unapologetic about her love for this show.

He acquiesces, if only for the chance to take a break in her arms, and sits with her on the couch, pulling her against him. She keeps her hand on his knee and he feels truly happy.

By the time the episode has ended, she has fallen asleep against his shoulder. He turns off the telly, then repositions them so that they’re lying on the couch together, Ellie atop his chest, his arm around her. He closes his eyes, and somehow manages to fall asleep as well. And Alec Hardy is not a napper.

He wakes up an hour and a half later alone, and can hardly believe he’d been asleep at all. He finds her in the kitchen folding laundry, listening to Queen. He comes up behind her and his arms circle her waist, his face buried in her neck. She stops folding and covers his hands with hers, letting him sway them back and forth a bit.

“Mmm…” He murmurs appreciatively at the sweet smell of her skin. Or maybe it’s her hair. Doesn’t matter.

“Nice little kip?” She answers, though she knows the answer.

“The nicest,” he replies, planting a kiss between her neck and shoulder and keeping his lips there.

“Dad’ll be back with the boys soon,” she tells him. “Thought we might set the boys up with a film and bring Dad out to the garden for a G&T, tell him there.”

Alec sighs. “If he must know, then I suppose that’ll do.”

“And Beth’s coming later with Lizzie. Reckon I ought to take that one alone, don’t suppose you could occupy Lizzie and Fred…”

“Nothing would please me more,” he replies, with only a little sarcasm.

“Oh, and Luce’ll join us,” Ellie adds, turning around in his arms to face him. “For support. With Dad.”

Alec frowns. “Not sure ‘support’ is a word I’d associate with your sister." 

“I know, but she’s awfully good at distracting him. She is the naughty daughter is after all.”

He snorts. “Not now that you’ve gone and gotten pregnant out of wedlock,” he surmises.

“Least we never ask him for money,” Ellie counters. “Oh, Maggie phoned while you were out. She and Jocelyn have invited us for supper tomorrow.”

“_Tomorrow_? That’s…you know. Tomorrow.”

“Think they’re a bit bored, to be honest.” She tilts her head to the side and makes a face. “Looking for couple friends. Told them we’d go.”

“I’ve no need to be anyone’s _couple friend_, Ellie,” Alec tells her, unamused.

She uses her feminine wiles against him, her eyes bright and sparkling. “I’ll do that thing you like…”

His ears perk up like a dog’s. “With the lights on?”

She nods.

“…All right then,” he agrees.

She pushes herself up on her tip-toes and kisses his cheek. Then they hear the front door bang open, and the sound of her father calling after a loud and chattering Fred.

Ellie and Alec exchange glances of slight trepidation. She grins at her through her teeth. “Showtime.”

***


	3. Chapter 3

Ellie and Alec move to the living room, and find Fred immediately running to them at full speed. He all but crashes into Ellie and she picks him up. He’s starting to get too big for this, but she’ll not give it up without a fight.

“Hello, my sweet love.”

Fred throws his arms around her neck. She can tell he’s exhausted. He’s at his most affectionate when he’s exhausted.

Out of the corner of her eye she catches Tom dumping his football gear in the hall. “Oi, not in the hall, you know better! Take all that upstairs.” 

Tom slumps his shoulders and picks everything up again, sighing loudly and dramatically as he heads for the stairs.

“Did you win at least?” Ellie calls to him hopefully.

Tom keeps going without a word. Ellie and Alec both look to her father, anticipating the worst.

“They lost,” David explains with chagrin. “Spectacularly.”

“You’ll get ‘em next time, lad!” Alec calls up the stairs, though Tom has probably disappeared into his room by now.

“Snack, Mumma?” Fred asks. He’s laying his head against her shoulder and she thinks she feels a yawn.

“I’ll take him,” Alec says. He reaches for Fred and pulls him over into his arms instead, then heads for the kitchen.

Ellie smiles at her father, who looks purely exhausted. She touches his arm. “Thanks, Dad. You wouldn’t believe all we were able to get done without the kids around.” David raises an eyebrow at her. “Oi, not that, get off with you.”

He smiles and kisses her cheek. “Happy to do it, love,” he says. “Daisy’s a right charmer as well.”

Ellie grins. “Isn’t she?” She takes his arm and pulls him further inside. “G&T?”

“Oh. All right, ta.” David takes off his hat and leaves it by the door as she leads him into the kitchen.

Fred is sitting the table eating apples and peanut butter.

“How’s about watching a film, love?” Ellie suggests.

Fred’s eyes light up. “_Force Awakens_?!”

Ellie and Alec exchange glances. “Bit long, but…”

“KYLO!” Fred exclaims.

“All right.” Ellie sighs. “Go and see if you can interest your brother.”

Fred hops out of his chair and runs out of the room. Ellie starts fixing a drink for her father.

“You’ll join me then?” David asks.

“Oh, ‘m fine, Dad,” she replies. “But Alec will.”

Alec tries not to nod too enthusiastically. Yes. Gin will help.

“And Luce’ll be by.”

David frowns. “What for?”

“Uh, just…”

“What’s she done?”

“She’s not done anything, Dad, she’s just popping by for a gin and a quick hello,” Ellie insists.

Sensing an awkward moment, Alec heads for the door. “I’ll just go set up the film for the lads.”

Ellie squeezes his shoulder as he passes her. “Thanks, love.”

Once Alec’s out of the room, David leans toward Ellie and asks, “How much does she need?”

“God’s sake. She doesn’t need any money, I swear.” Ellie silently pleads with the universe to make that be as true as she insists it is.

She hands her father a gin and tonic. He raises the glass in her direction and takes a sip. “Make these as well as your mother did.”

Ellie shrugs. “Not hard, Dad. Two ingredients really.”

“Yes, but the _ratio _can be a challenge.” 

She puts the kettle on and readies herself a cup of tea. “Thought we’d sit in the garden for a bit, yeah?”

“This is beginning to feel like a set up, Ellie.”

“It’s not a set up!” She feels herself devolving into a child when he’s around sometime. “Just want to relax a bit, catch up. We’ve all been so busy lately.”

“_You’ve _been so busy lately,” David corrects her.

“Well,” she says a little guiltily. “Yes.”

“It’s all right, love.” He touches her cheek briefly. “Rather you be busy than…what you were before.”

Before. After Joe was exonerated and Alec was gone and her mother was dying and she was just a single mum trying to get through the day and just barely succeeding.

“Right.”

Alec enters. “Film’s sorted. Tom’s come down to join, but I bribed him with crisps.”

Alec grabs the crisps out of the cabinet, and the rest of Fred’s apples and peanut butter, and disappears from the kitchen again.

“Seems like he’s a good help to you,” David says with a appreciative nod.

Ellie smiles. “He is that. And other things too.”

Alec enters again. “They’ve adopted me as their manservant,” he says, grabbing cups out of the cabinet and filling them with water.

“They can bloody well get their own,” Ellie tells him. “Tom can, anyway.”

“’s fine. They’re quiet. Can’t complain.”

Alec exits the kitchen again with the two waters.

“Boys seem to have taken to him,” her father remarks, taking a sip from his glass.

“Remarkably so,” Ellie agrees. “Might be the best thing ever to happen to Fred, frankly.”

David nods, considering this thoughtfully. Alec enters again, and Ellie hands him his gin and tonic. He takes a sip, then kisses her cheek. He brings his hand to the small of her back, and then takes another, longer sip when he feels David staring at him.

The kettle whistles and Ellie pours hot water into her mug. “Outside then?” She suggests.

Alec realized some time ago that he was not as wild about entertaining guests outside. In the garden, there are several chairs, their failing being that they can seat only one person respectably. Alec does not appreciate when he cannot be physically attached to Ellie during social situations.

David takes a seat, letting out a relaxed sigh as he does. Alec waits for Ellie to sit, but she gestures for him to. He reluctantly does, but then she sits on the arm of his chair. He smiles at her gratefully and reaches for her hand. She smiles back. She knows.

“Plenty of seating, El,” David says, taking a sip and eyeing Alec suspiciously. He doesn’t mean to. He likes Alec well enough. It’s just…paternal habit.

“Like a good perch myself,” she replies breezily. Then she looks at her watch and under her breath says, “Bloody Luce…”

“How’s work then, you two?” Her father asks, leaning back and crossing on leg over the other.

“Fine, fine,” Alec replies. “Mercifully quiet, wouldn’t you say, El?”

She nods. “Crime rate always goes down just a bit at the end of sumer. Nice for us.”

“For everyone, I’d imagine,” David says. There’s quiet for a moment, as they all tend to their respective drinks as a salve. “You two seem quite settled here now, eh?”

They both nod. “Mm, yes,” Ellie agrees, looking at Alec, whose facial expression changes entirely when he goes from looking at her father to looking at her. She’s like a Xanax to him.

“Quite settled,” Alec reiterates.

Lucy then comes barelling in at high speed. “Sorry, sorry, sodding traffic.”

Everyone present knows that traffic likely had nothing to do with Lucy being late.

“No bother, Luce,” Ellie lies through her teeth. “G&T?" 

“Yeah, great.”

“I’ll go,” Alec insists, standing up. “Back in a flash.”

Alec all but runs inside the house. Lucy takes a sit in a chair next to her father. “All right, Dad?”

“All right, Luce.”

“What’ve I missed?”

“Not a thing,” Ellie tells her.”Just catching up a bit.”

“Right. Well, Olly says hello to all,” Lucy says. “Just been on with him in the car. He’s looking forward to, uh, hearin’ all the news when he visits weekend next.”

“I just bet he is,” Ellie replies through gritted teeth.

Lucy then looks to her, a mischievous look in her eyes. “No drink for you, El?”

Ellie could _throttle _her. She clears her throat. “…Just fine with tea, thanks, Luce.”

Alec returns with a G&T for Lucy, then sits back down in his chair. He instinctively reaches for Ellie’s hand again.

David has been flashing suspicious eyes back and forth at his daughters. “You lot are up to somethin’, yeah?”

“Us?” Lucy feigns offense. “Never been up to a thing once in our whole lives.”

“Dad.” Ellie leans forward, deciding she’s just going to go for it. “We do have something to tell you.” David looks at Lucy, so Ellie amends her original statement. “_Alec _and I have something to tell you.” 

David lowers his drink onto his knee. “You’re getting married.”

Somehow the idea that her father would leap to this conclusion had never occurred to _any_of them, despite this being the natural order of things for most people. Not one of them can hide their surprise. 

“What, you’re _not _getting married?”

“Uh.” Ellie blinks. “No. Dad. …No.”

Lucy’s surprise fades and turns into a wicked smile as she watches her sister squirm. David shifts uncomfortably in his chair, displeased. “You should really get married. Given all…” He gestures vaguely to the house. “This. You’ve both got kids to think about, after all.”

Ellie bites her lip. “Uh.” Lucy starts cackling quietly. “Oh shove it, Luce!”

To the surprise of all, David looks to Alec. “What is it then? These two will keep us here all night with their antics,” he says. “You’re going to tell me you don’t want to marry my daughter? Because…” He looks them up and down – their hands clasped together resting on his knee. “…You really _look _like you want to marry my daughter.”

“I. Um.” Alec is squeezing Ellie’s hand tightly like an SOS. “It’s not that I _don’t_…uh, want to marry your daughter, but you see it’s…actually it’s quite…” 

“We’re not getting married, Dad,” Ellie says definitively, saving him. “We’re having a baby.”

Ellie is fully aware of how ridiculous she sounds, as if the truth somehow makes more logical sense than his assumption.

David leans forward, blinking rapidly. “You’re…” 

Lucy and Alec both look to Ellie. Ellie’s eyes are locked on her father. Alec can see she’s trembling a bit.

“I’m pregnant.”

David squirms around a bit, then takes long, long swig of his G&T. Alec and Lucy take the opportunity to do the same. But Ellie is just waiting, sitting up straight, keeping her gaze steady.

“So.” David sits up straight again to match Ellie, but his gaze moves back over to Alec. “You’ll move into my daughter’s house, take care of her children, and _get her knocked up_. But you’ll not marry her.”

“_Dad_,” Ellie complains, totally exasperated by this particular line of questioning. “I don’t _want _to get married.”

“I don’t understand what that _means_, Eleanor,” David says, remaining steadfast.

“Alec and I have both _been _married,” she explains. “Didn’t turn out so well if you recall.”

“People get remarried all the time, works out fine,” he counters.

“Might we focus on the topic at hand?” She pleads with him.

“I think this _is _the topic at hand.”

Ellie looks at Lucy pleadingly. She nods and jumps in. “What would it change, really, Dad, if they were to get married? They’d still be livin’ together and havin’ a baby, still have the same life they have now. Piece of paper doesn’t make all that much difference.”

“Just doesn’t make a lick of sense to me,” David continues. “You live together, you work together, now you’ve havin’ a _baby _together, why can’t you just – “

“I’d marry her,” Alec says suddenly, and they all turn their heads swiftly to look at him. “If she wanted to. I’d marry her.”

Lucy is shocked and Ellie is frowning at him. _Hard_. “You don’t have to say that, Alec, you don’t have to bend to his _guilt _tactics, he’s just a stubborn ole pain in the arse and there’s no reason for you to – “

Alec turns to look at her, gaze unwavering. “I don’t feel guilty, and ‘m not bending to anythin’. I’ll marry you if you let me.”

Ellie gets up off the arm of the chair and moves as far away from him as she can, positively fuming. 

Lucy looks at her father. “Oi, see what you’ve done, old man? You’re a bloody menace.”

“It’s not an unreasonable request!” David exclaims. “Don’t blame _me _for it. If my daughter’s going to be up the duff with her boss’s child I’d like her to have a little _security _in all this. Bad enough the whole town knows she’s shaggin’ her boss, now he’s found yet another way to take advantage of her?”

“Oh fuck’s sake!” Lucy exclaims. “Not one thing about any of this implies bein’ taken _advantage of_, look around you. It’s the 21stcentury, people can be in love without bein’ married. Nobody in this town thinks your daughter’s a ruddy _slag_. Not _that _daughter anyway.”

Alec has had his eyes on Ellie since she stood and moved away, her back to all of them. David stands and now looks at Ellie too.

“Don’t think you’re a slag, El, your sister’s puttin’ words in my mouth now, I’d never say that and I’d never think it,” he says firmly. “Just to be clear.”

Ellie nods, but she doesn’t turn around.

“Just want to make sure you’re being taken care of. Whatever happens.” He puts down his drink and shoves his hands into his pockets. “Sounds like he’s more than willing to marry you, so that’s…that’s fine, then.”

Ellie turns around now and there are tears in her eyes. Alec’s heart immediately begins to _ache _for her. “That’s fine then? You just wanted to see if he was _willing _to marry me? To make sure I’m not such damaged goods that even the man who loves me won’t commit himself to me on paper and in the eyes of god? _Poor Ellie Miller, knocked up by her boss and even he won’t marry her. _That what you want to avoid? Me bringing more _shame _upon the family name?”

Lucy is frozen. David has gone pale and is shaking his head rapidly. “Ellie, no. You’ve not brought shame upon _anyone_, that’s not what I think.”

Ellie wipes away the moisture gathering under her eyes. “Then why’s it so bloody important?”

David looks down at his shoes, feeling properly chastised. “How I was raised. Just…want to see that you’re being taken care of.”

“I don’t _need _that, Dad, I don’t need to be taken care of.”

He nods slowly. “I know. But you do need stability. Now, after…all that’s happened, you need a _constant_, you need…”

The tears are building up in her eyes again. “You don’t know how what I need. That’s for me, that’s mine. _I _know what I need,” she says, trying her hardest not to full on cry. “And what I don’t need is a _protector_.”

Alec can’t keep himself away from her any longer, his entire body has been yearning to go to her. He takes a few steps in her direction, and upon seeing this, she immediately begins to walk past him toward the house.

“Not one more word out of _you _either,” she complains, brushing past him.

She disappears into the house. Lucy grabs her G&T and quickly follows her sister inside. David and Alec are left to their own.

They stand awkwardly for a moment, then David makes to head inside.

“S’pose I ought to be gettin’ on,” he says, reaching for his glass to bring it inside.

“Think you’d best be staying, actually,” Alec says, suddenly gaining in confidence around the older man. “When she’s ready, she’ll come back and need some closure from you. If you’re not here, she’ll drag it out until long after the moment’s past and let it fester for god knows how long.”

David considers him for a moment, then sits back down, stiffly. Alec sits down in his own chair as well. They both drink.

“Gettin’ to know her pretty well, I see,” David says, not looking at him.

“Known her pretty well for a while, as it happens,” Alec replies. 

They sit quietly for a few moments. Then Alec offers him a crooked half-smile and tries to lighten things. “Bit of a cock-up on both our parts, eh?”

“So the evidence would suggest, but I can’t say I understand why.” He’s shaking his head to himself. 

“Can tell you, if you like.” 

David looks at him, doesn’t respond, but his expression assents. Alec nods, taking a sip of his gin before continuing.

“Well, for your part, you’ve implied she can’t take care of herself, which implies she can’t take care of her children. And you’ve also neglected to consider the fact that she associates marriage with Joe, rightly so, and therefore the subject needs to be broached a little more…mindfully,” Alec explains. David is trying not to appear impressed. “For _my _part, I reneged on a long-held agreement between us that we’d never get married and I did it not only without warning her, but in front of _you_, which in her eyes put me firmly on your side of things.”

David nods slowly, sizing Alec up a bit, rightly chagrined.

“You _do _know her well.”

“Aye, sir,” Alec agrees. “Though as you can see I don’t always use the knowledge well.”

“Thought we’d dispensed with the ‘sir’ business.”

“Right.”

They’re both quiet again for a spell, nursing their drinks.

Then David looks across at him. “You love her very much.” 

Alec nods conclusively. “And even more than that.” 

“Did you want her to get pregnant?”

Alec is entirely taken aback by the question, but miraculously manages to keep himself even. Something he’s never quite managed to do in front of Ellie’s father before now.

“I…did. Yes, I did,” he says quietly. “But I didn’t….I did nothing to…” He sighs. “The birth control’s all on her end. I was happy to respect her wishes.”

“So what happened then?”

“Well.” Alec throws back more of his drink and is disappointed to find the contents dwindling. “Don’t rightly know, somethin’ about switching around her pills and there being a brief period in between when they didn’t…I dunno, work to their full potency or what have you.”

“Just bad luck then.” David shakes his head quickly. “Luck in general then, I mean. A coincidence of sorts.”

“Yeah.”

“But you wanted a baby,” the older man continues.

“Aye, with Ellie,” Alec replies. “I wanted a baby with Ellie. Not a baby…generally. Never thought I’d fancy another kid. But then I’d watch Ellie with hers. And with mine, frankly. Wanted us to have that together.”

Even Alec can’t believe just how open and honest he’s being. With anyone but Ellie, but especially with Ellie’s father, who just half an hour ago he could barely speak to.

“And Ellie didn’t.”

“Not at the time, no. But she came ‘round to it.”

David finishes his drink. Alec finishes his.

“Did you mean what you said before?” David asks.

“Well, to quote your daughter, ‘I always mean what I say.’”

David smiles. “S’pose she does, doesn’t she.”

Alec smiles too. “Certainly does.”

David hesitates, chewing on an ice chip. “You’d marry her then.”

“Aye.”

David is pleased and nods his head. He stands up, and pats Alec’s knee paternally as he walks toward the door. “Good man. Going to get another one of these, care to join me?”

Alec hops up eagerly.

*

Ellie is lying on her bed staring at the ceiling. Lucy sits on the edge of the mattress clinging to her G&T.

“Which one are you more mad at?” Lucy asks, and it’s unclear to both of them whether she’s trying to help or trying to stir up more trouble.

Ellie doesn’t answer.

“It’s Alec, isn’t it.” Ellie just looks at her. “Dad, you expected it from. You knew he was gonna give you shit about bein’ an unwed mother. It was _Alec _who turned on ya.”

“Is this supposed to be helping?” Ellie responds, frustrated. 

“Just tryin’ to help you get to the bottom of all this. I do know you, after all. Like it or not.” She sips her G&T.

“Promised we’d never get married,” she mumbles unhappily. “Even just this morning!”

Lucy shrugs. “He’s the one who wanted a baby. Not surprised he’s the one wanting to get married.” Ellie groans. “Although to be fair, he didn’t say he _wanted _to marry you. Just that he would.”

“_Again_, is that supposed to be helping?”

“Sorry. Don’t think it’s the end of the world though, El. So what he says he’d marry you. _I’d _marry you if I had to. Doesn’t mean I _want _to.”

Ellie props herself up on her elbows to look at Lucy properly. “You are really, _really _bad at this you know.”

“God’s sake it’s not like he’s _asked _you!” Lucy says. “He’s just makin’ a point for Dad, and frankly, he did a nice job of it too. Wonder if maybe you should be thankin’ him.”

Ellie just looks at her. Lucy takes another sip and continues.

“Look, if someone held a gun to your head and told you to marry Alec Hardy, would you do it?" 

“Oh my god, Lucy.”

Lucy just shrugs. “Go back down, will you? Dad doesn’t think you’re a slag. Alec’s not beggin’ to marry you. You’re still the same knocked up copper you were an hour ago. You’re fine.” Lucy fields Ellie’s glare without much bother. “Little tough love, eh?”

If only to extricate herself from this conversation with her sister, Ellie gets up and heads back downstairs. Lucy follows her. They pass Fred and Tom in the living room, eyes glued to the telly, and continue on into the kitchen, where they find David and Alec sitting at the kitchen table drinking fresh G&Ts, having a laugh about something. A _laugh_.

Ellie stops paralyzed in the doorway. “What do you lot think you’re up to?”

Both men stand at her presence. Lucy lurks behind her.

“Love, I’m sorry,” David says quickly. “Didn’t mean to imply you weren’t capable of…well, anything really. I know you are.”

“I…” 

“And I shouldn’t have said what I said,” Alec admits. “Certainly not without speakin’ to you first.”

Ellie is flummoxed. Lucy is grinning.

“Sorry,” Alec whispers to her, a bit conspiratorally. “Did you come down here for a fight?”

Bloody hell, he _does _know her well.

“_No_,” she says, though it’s clear that _yes _is the answer.

“You can have a go at me if you like,” Alec says contentedly. “I’m all yours.”

David is smiling, and slaps Alec’s arm companionably. “Look at that, El, you’ve finally got yourself someone who truly understands you.”

“Dad, we should leave now,” Lucy says quickly, before their father can ruin his own apology. “Come on then.”

“’m not finished my drink though…”

Lucy takes it out of his hand and puts it on the counter and along with hers. “Come on, Dad.” He starts to lead him out of the kitchen, but he stops next to Ellie.

“I love you, my girl.” Ellie gives him a little half-smile. “Congratulations. To you both.” 

Ellie’s smile grows a bit wider, and she looks at her, who is smiling at her too. “…Thanks, Dad.”

He kisses her cheek, and then lets Lucy pull him out the door.

She turns back to Alec, who is regarding her a bit sheepishly.

“El, I…um.” He shifts a bit. “I know this pregnancy puts a lot more pressure on you than it does on me. In…more ways than I can name, probably. I want you to feel…supported, that’s all. In whatever.” 

She smiles. “You can support me by not marrying me.”

“Done.”

The front doorbell rings. “Oh, bollocks,” she curses. “That’ll be Beth.”

***


	4. Chapter 4

Fred and Tom reach the front door before Alec and Ellie do. Beth and Lizzie are in the foyer, and the two small children are already talking animatedly to (or rather,_at_) each other.

“Hello there, stranger,” Beth says, smiling at Ellie.

Ellie goes to kiss her cheek. “So happy you could pop by.”

Beth smiles curtly at Alec. “Hardy.”

Alec nods at her. “Beth.”

Tom goes back to the living room, uninterested in these proceedings. Suddenly Fred begins jumping up and down.

“LIZZIE! Lizzie, you wanna see my baby?”

“_Yes!_” The three-year-old replies automatically.

Fred goes to Ellie and starts pawing at her, pushing her shirt up.

“Oh, god,” Alec mumbles to himself, rubbing his temple.

Ellie tries to push the child’s hands away but he’s insistent.

“The baby is in here!” Fred exclaims, pinching his mother’s stomach. 

“_Ow_, bollocks.” Ellie flinches and steps back out of his grasp.

“What baby?!” Lizzie asks.

When Ellie sheepishly glances over, Beth’s jaw has dropped and her eyes have gone wide. Alec looks at Ellie apologetically, as if he can somehow apologize to her on Fred’s behalf. 

“Mumma and Alec’s baby, it’s right _there_.” Fred pokes her in the stomach again.

“Fred, that’s enough,” Ellie says firmly, holding her top in place.

“Don’t see a baby.” Lizzie pouts.

“You can’t see it, but the doctor knows it’s there and the doctor told us,” Fred explains, just as Alec had attempted to explain to _him _the other night.

Alec takes note of what’s silently passing between Ellie and Beth and decides to round up the two troublemakers.

“All right, mates, let’s go on upstairs to Fred’s room and see what we can cook up,” Alec says.

He reaches for both Lizzie and Fred’s hands and starts guiding them upstairs. He meets Ellie’s eyes briefly, and hers are saying _thank you_.

Ellie looks at Beth. “Um.” She puts her hands on her hips and looks around helplessly. “Care for a gin? Bet you’d like a gin.”

“Make it a double,” Beth replies. 

Ellie leads her into the kitchen, past Tom in the living room, who has resumed _The Force Awakens _without his brother. She knows there’ll be a row between them later, but she can’t engage in preventative measures now.

In the kitchen, Beth sits silently at the table waiting for Ellie to fix her drink. Ellie does it as quickly as she can, then hands it over and sits adjacent to her. 

After taking a long sip, Beth looks at her friend pointedly and says, “So what’s new with you?”

Ellie sighs heavily, slumping her shoulders. “Was going to tell you this very night, I swear it, that’s the whole reason I asked you to come by. Little one’s got a big mouth, no surprise there.”

Beth leans forward, and Ellie finds it impossible to decipher her expression. “You’re really pregnant then?”

She flashes her a cringey smile. “I really am.”

“Blimey. Seems like Hardy just moved in.”

“It’s been, you know…” Ellie thinks about it. “Two months or so.” 

Beth raises an eyebrow. “And how far along are you?”

“…Two months nearly." 

“So then.”

“Right.” Ellie slumps back in her chair. Beth’s lips begin to curve into a smile, and thus Ellie’s do as well. “Never thought of that.”

Beth takes a sip of her drink. “Suppose congratulations are in order then.”

“Suppose they are.” Ellie waits for it. 

“Are you happy?” Beth asks.

Ellie nods. “Believe it or not.”

“Then congratulations.”

“Thank you.” Ellie gets up and goes to the counter to put the kettle on. “I’ve just told Dad. Fifteen minute diatribe on how we ought to get married.”

Beth winces. “Sounds like your dad.” She pauses. “Are ya goin’ to?"

“God, no,” Ellie replies, too quickly. “Although…whole thing about Alec now being game for it, despite our very firm agreement never to consider it.” She throws a teabag into a mug. “Quite a long evening so far, come to think of it.”

“Hardy wants to marry you?”

“No, no. Well. Not as such, I s’pose. Said he would if I wanted to.”

Beth frowns. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“No idea.” She leans back against the counter and folds her arms across her chest. “Rather an infuriating man, that one is.”

“I’ll say,” Beth replies, smirking. “He happy about all this?”

“Oh, bloody ecstatic, he’s thrilled.” Even Ellie can hardly believe she’s not being sarcastic. “Quite adorable really.”

Beth snorts. “Alec Hardy _adorable_,” she says. “Hard to imagine.”

“Won’t be after a while,” Ellie replies, grinning. “He gets that way quite often. You’ll see.”

“Still not used to seein’ you so _smitten_,” Beth comments, throwing back some of her drink.

The kettle whistles and Ellie pours the water into her mug.

“Ah, well.” Ellie shrugs it off. “But think of it, he’s up there right now playin’ with a three-year-old and a five-year-old, and of his own accord. Imagine, if you will, the Alec Hardy you know playing _Star Wars_.” Beth appears somewhat impressed. “He’s even got his own dedicated lightsaber, Beth.”

Beth laughs. “You do remember how he used to drive you _mad_.”

“Oh, still does,” Ellie says, nodding. “All the bloody time, he’s a right pain in the arse, I could throttle him now and again.” She adds a splash of milk to her tea. “But he’s also the sweetest man this side of the Channel. You should see him sometimes, Beth, he’s just…oh, he’s so lovely.” She has to look away, knowing that she’s blushing. “Just…thoughtful and kind and gentle." 

Beth is no longer so impressed but amused. “You sound like Belle defending the Beast.”

Ellie laughs loudly and Beth does too.

“Sorry, Lizzie’s in a Disney Princess phase." 

Ellie sips her tea, still smiling unabashedly about Alec. “He really is a beautiful man,” she says conclusively.

“Fuck’s sake, Ellie, you’ve gone soft on me.” Beth drinks. “A beautiful man? Bloody hell, you _are _in love.”

“Well, good thing too, since I’ll be having his baby in about seven months.”

Beth puts her drink down. “God, that really is fuckin’ wild, El.”

“I know.”

“Boys all right with it?”

Ellie hesitates. “Well, Fred’s over the moon, as you could plainly see. Tom’s a little more on the fence but then Tom’s on the fence about most things these days. Think it brought up some stuff for him.”

Beth nods. “Not surprised.”

Ellie sips her tea and Beth sips her drink until suddenly Ellie puts hers down. “Come on, come with me a minute.” 

She leads Beth out of the kitchen and upstairs. She gestures for her to be quiet as they walk down the hall to Fred’s room, where the door is slightly ajar. They can hear the excited voices of their youngest children shrieking with delight. Ellie and Beth stand in the doorway, and Ellie pushes the door open just enough that they can both see inside.

Fred is holding a lightsaber and wearing a Batman cape (one day she must get him an actual Star Wars costume). Alec has a lightsaber as well, and Lizzie is on his back, arms around his neck to hold on. Lizzie laughs wildly as Alec and Fred battle with their lightsabers. Ellie turns to Beth with a proud grin on her face. Beth is duly astonished by the sight before her. Fred’s lightsaber crashes into Alec’s abdomen and Alec drops his own lightsaber and slowly drops onto his knees, crying out in exaggerated pain as he feigns his own death. He collapses all the way to the ground and Lizzie stands up on his back. Fred then lightsabers Lizzie just above the knees and she collapses too, lying on top of Alec, both playing dead. Fred jumps onto the bed and celebrates his victory. Alec’s arms reach back and he tickles Lizzie, who begins to shriek.

“Lizzie, you’re dead!” Fred reminds her. But the little girl can’t stop laughing.

Ellie and Beth are now laughing too, and Ellie’s snort causes all three of them to look over at the doorway. Alec grins at them.

“Aw, sorry, lad, your mum’s busted us!” He turns to the side and Lizzie slides off of him.

“Mumma, Kylo killed Alec and Lizzie!” Fred announces.

“Ah, no, Kylo killed _Han_,” Alec says, painstakingly working his way up to stand. “_Han _and…well, Lizzie.”

“Han and Lizzie!” Lizzie yells.

Ellie looks at Beth. “See?”

Beth nods, smiling. Ellie can see in her eyes how much she misses Mark. 

“All right, Lizzie, come on, love, let’s go,” Beth says, entering the room fully and gathering Lizzie up in her arms. “Leave the lightsaber.”

Lizzie holds the lightsaber out to Alec who takes it from her.

“We’re off then,” Beth tells them. “Say goodbye to Fred.”

“Bye, Fred!" 

Fred waves his lightsaber. “Bye, Lizzie!”

Beth looks at Alec briefly with a half-smile. “Thanks for mindin’ them.”

Alec nods back, hands in his pockets. “Pleasure.”

Beth heads for the door and kisses Ellie’s cheek. “Congrats again, El.” Then she looks at Alec again. “To both of you.”

Lizzie in tow, Beth heads down the stairs. Ellie looks over at Fred. “Tom’s got the film going again.”

Fred gasps. “What!” He drops his lightsaber and runs out the door. 

Alec brushes himself off, then gathers both lightsabers and puts them away. Ellie saunters toward him, unable to hide the wide grin on her face.

“What?” He asks.

She slips her arms around his neck, and he reciprocates unquestioningly with his arms around her waist.

“I love you.” She pushes herself up on her tiptoes and kisses him. “You’re lovely.”

“_Oh_,” he replies happily. “Well then. I love you _you’re _lovely.”

Her grin widens, if possible, and she kisses him again. “Thank you.” 

He tightens his arms around her. “What for?" 

“For being the Beast to my Belle.”

He frowns. That is not where he thought this was going. “Wha?”

She kisses him again, this time parting his lips and slipping him a bit of tongue. “Mm, never you mind.”

He nods obediently. “Yes, you’ve made your point.”

She pulls him into a tight hug, which he easily reciprocates.

“All right, love?” He asks quietly into the crook of her neck.

“I’m good, I’m so good.” She pulls back enough to look at him. “…I’m _really _good.” She says it as if she’s realizing it for the first time.

“…So you’re good then.”

She takes his face into her hands, both thumbs rubbing against his beard. “Not to go soppy on you, but – “

“Ach, I do it all the time now, you’ve softened me to in a right soppy mess,” he interjects.

“_But _I want you to know just how grateful I am,” she continues. “For you. For the way you are with my boys, for the things you do around the house – bless you for always cooking, by the way – and for the way you’re just _there _absolutely any time I look for you, the way your hand is never far from mine. You always seem to know when I’m just about to reach for it.” 

He tries to look away from her. “Ah, come on now, El.” But she doesn’t let him look away.

“It’s important to me that you know that. All right? It’s important that you hear me,” she says, unwavering and steadfast, still holding his face firm in her hands. “I appreciate the things you do. Your patience, your always very surprising compassion.” She offers him a smirk. “How terrifyingly well you seem to know me. And not just know but _understand _me. There’s a difference. You are an amazing partner, Alec. In all ways. And I need you to look me in the eyes and tell me you’ve heard me.”

His eyes are a bit wet when he nods just slightly. “I hear you.” His voice cracks a little.

“Good. I’m not always going to be at my best these next seven months. I’ll be a right bitch a good portion of the time and I won’t always remember to tell you so when I take you for granted, which I hope never to do but know that I will, replay this moment in your mind and know that it will _always _remain true. All right?” She touches her forehead to his.

“All right.”

“And lastly.” She strokes his hair with one hand. “I think marriage is total rubbish and an undeniable recipe for disaster, but if I _didn’t_, I would marry the absolute _fuck _out of you, Alec Hardy.”

He smiles, and she wipes away the one tear that escapes from his eye before it has a chance to fall down his cheek. “And I would marry the absolute fuck out of you, Ellie Miller.” 

She’s grinning. “Not so bad as vows go, eh?”

He smashes his lips into hers, unable to keep himself from doing so any longer. He kisses her and kisses her until he has to make himself stop so he can say, “I love you.” And then he kisses her again. 

She pulls back a little breathless, and places both hands on his chest. “Right, then. Had better order in tonight, hadn’t we? Boys’ll be ravenous soon.”

“Thai?”

She nods. “Yes please and lots of it.”

Downstairs, they place their order – a large one, thanks to both the rapidly growing teenage boy and his pregnant mother – and then Alec and Ellie decide to join Tom and Fred in the living room, where they are still working their way through _The Force Awakens_. They sit together on the loveseat, Ellie curled into him with her legs on his lap, and him with one arm around her back and the other on her calf.

Ellie has a tendency to watch films as if she’s never seen them before, even when she’s seen them a hundred times. She reacts animatedly to _everything_.

“Mum, stop it,” Tom complains, eyes glued to the telly. He’s quite used to this, and knows it will only get worse.

“Sorry,” Ellie whispers.

Alec kisses her cheek, his way of telling her that he actually loves the way she reacts to everything, and she grins at him. Before long, neither one of them is watching the film any longer. They try to keep their eyes focused on the screen, but one of them is always kissing the other somewhere. Neck, cheek, nose, throat, hair. And they can’t seem to stop. 

They try to keep it subtle, but eventually Tom does in fact notice. “Don’t be in here if you’re just gonna be doin’ that.”

“We’re _watching _the _film_,” Ellie insists.

And they do, again, for about twenty seconds before Alec starts sucking at the soft skin behind her earlobe. She tries very hard to keep her giggles more on the silent side, which is so bloody cute it just makes him want to devour her _more_. She takes his hand and plays with it, weaving their fingers in and out of each other.

Tom turns to full on glare at them. “Nobody asked you to be in here you know, you could just _go to another room _and no one will miss you.” 

Ellie drops her jaw, feigning utter shock. “We want to see what _happens_.”

Tom rolls his eyes. “So annoying.”

Alec then brings her hand to his lips and starts kissing her fingers one by one.

“Oh, _look_, look,” Ellie whispers harshly to him. She nods her head in the direction of the couch, where Fred has fallen asleep on Tom’s shoulder, and Tom has not pushed him away. “Oh my god, look.”

It’s pretty cute, Alec must admit, but nowhere near as cute as her absolutely tickled reaction to it. He feels quite bereft when she hops up off his lap and says, “Must grab my mobile and take a photo." 

By the time she comes back in with her mobile, Tom has moved a few inches to the side, and Fred’s head is now resting on the couch cushion next to him. 

She sighs heavily. “Oh, bollocks.”

Alec reaches for her hand and yanks her back down onto his lap. He runs one hand up and down her legging-clad calves and the other finds the nape of her neck and draws her lips to his. She lets him kiss her once, then says, “Ought to wake Fred up or he’ll be impossible to get to bed.”

She touches her index finger to his nose affectionately. “Oh, no, now look,” Alec says, nodding in the boys’ direction again. Tom is now fast asleep as well.

Ellie is purely delighted and frustrated at the same time. “Oh, you’re joking, it’s barely seven.”

“Shh.” He brings a finger to her lips. “Don’t ruin it.”

He pushes her down on the loveseat and crawls over her, insomuch as they can on the tiny loveseat. He tries to kiss her but she’s just giggling like a schoolgirl. He brings a finger back to her lips and looks at her sternly. “Quiet and let me snog you.”

She instantly wipes the grin off her face and nods back solemnly. “Yes, sir.” 

He starts kissing her again, but when his bizarrely cold hands slip underneath her shirt and meet her skin, she starts laughing again. He drops his forehead onto her chest and sighs. She reaches for him and pulls his head back up so he’s looking at her.

“Go on and snog me then, I’ll not stop you.”

A saucy grin takes over his face and he presses his lips to hers. Then the music begins to loudly swell on the television and Fred startles awake.

“Kylo!” He yells as if, in addition to watching _Stars Wars _on the telly, he was also dreaming about it.

“Bloody hell,” Alec whispers against her lips.

Ellie’s eyes are suddenly glued to the telly again and she starts to sit up, pushing him off her. “Oh, this is the good part.”

He groans and lets himself be forced into a seated position again. The doorbell rings. Their Thai food. 

“Oh, don’t anyone get up,” Alec says dryly, standing. “I’ll get it.”

“Thanks, love,” Ellie says distractedly, launching herself over to the couch to grab Fred and snuggle him during this moment of cinematic suspense.

Alec stops in the doorway and smiles at them. Ellie and Fred gasp dramatically at the same time. Alec shakes his head, and goes to the front door.

***


End file.
